Anderson's & Scrabble Champ

Mindy was up extra early to see Jacob off to Cedar Point with a friend and his parents. I think she was up around 7am. And as I understood it, he’d be gone until Monday night. Between the two of us, we forked over about $120 to cover his admission and food.

I slept till 8am. Woke rested. It was a very gloomy start to the day – cloudy, soupy, muggy, warm, and 78 degrees. Coffee and internet until my run which wasn’t until almost 10am. Ran 3 miles. Somewhat surprising, Mindy was still in bed upon my return.

Near 11am I decided to whip up a big breakfast that included an omelet, home fries using leftover baked potatoes, cheesy grits, and bloody Mary’s. Mindy was up near 1130am or shortly before everything was ready. I wasn’t really sure if she’d want any of it but made plenty. Turns out, she did. There was enough for the two of us and then some. I left some aside for Bella just in case she wanted some once she was up, which was somewhere near noon.

During breakfast, Mindy and I talked about our trip and what we wanted to take food-wise. We agreed to take some steaks and fish. To that end, we planned to make an Anderson’s run that afternoon. The Bloody Mary’s were good. We each had just one. Bella wanted only home fries but didn’t finish them. She ended up going with Cheerios.

I headed up for a shower near 1230pm. Mindy planned to shower later that afternoon. The three of us left for the Anderson’s around 1pm. As we barreled around 270 we could a couple scattered storms, one in west Hilliard, and one in Dublin. Skies looked scary. Poured rain once we hit Dublin with several lightning strikes too. But by the time we exited 270 at Sawmill the rains had moved beyond. However, that didn’t last. Sky still looked threatening so I offered to let Mindy and Bella out at the entrance. As soon as I stopped near the door it started to rain once again.

While I parked, it really came down. I waited a few minutes before heading inside. Like the showers we drove through on the ride up, it stopped less than five minutes after its start. We were in the Anderson’s for what I’m guessing was 45 minutes. We bought steaks, fish, beer, wine, as well as a few other items. By the time we checked out and headed to the car the skies were again sunny. Really humid, too, by the way. Headed straight for home.

Once the meat was in the freezer, and then following Mindy’s lead, I headed out on the deck. With the earlier rain, it was really humid and warm, by then about 90 degrees. I couldn’t decide what to do with my afternoon, if I wanted to sweat it out outside or stay indoors in the AC. I was torn.

I headed back inside and then outside again multiple times. That’s the problem with me not having an agenda. I’m lost! At one point I bought a new Kindle book only to realize that my Kindle was all but dead. I plugged it in to charge then headed back outside for a while longer.

Now what? I spent some time online refining our Ashville/Black Mountain to-do list. Earlier, I emailed Bob I. asking for some ideas/options. He and Mary Ann have been there twice I think in the last couple years and share similar interests. He responded quickly with a host of ideas/options. Also learned that they’re in Northern Michigan on one of their many planned summer trips.

Still unsettled on what to do with my time, I waffled over getting my bike down and going for a ride. The biggest problem I saw with that was where to put my bike in the garage since the kayaks are taking up that room right now. I ended up skipping the bike ride and headed back inside to check on my Kindle, which was already charged to about 60%. Good enough. I did some reading, and by then it was about 330pm. I read and napped until almost 530pm. I woke to the sound of Mindy’s camera shutter capturing me in my slumber.

Shortly thereafter Mindy headed upstairs for a shower. Bella asked what we were doing for dinner after I declined a pasta and red sauce recommendation from Mindy. Bella reminded me that we talked Friday about making homemade pizzas. That wasn’t top on my list, but the fact of the matter is that I had no list. My day was largely undecided. I eventually agreed to make the pizzas and we got started around 6-630pm.

Bella and I have done the homemade pizza thing two other times. We’ve got this thing down pretty well. Not really that hungry. We decided to make just one pizza. Took about 30 minutes from the outset to getting it in the oven. Not bad. By the time it was ready to go it, Mindy was back downstairs after a shower. She seemed to be in a really good mood after the shower.

From experience, I decided to leave the pizza in for a couple minutes longer than called for on the box since we all tend to like a crispier crust. We enjoyed a couple slices of pizza as well as some cucumber salad. It was good.

Through dinner, we discussed Bella’s grounding which comes to end with the dawn of a new day (Monday). We also talked a little about the essay we’ve requested she write, which is the second half of her discipline plan. We agreed on a due date of Thursday. And to that end I strongly urged her to get some ideas on paper sooner rather than later.

After dinner, Mindy suggested we play Scrabble again. Bella was game and so was I. I was far more into to it this go round. I set the tone early, laying several decent words and jumping out to a rather sizeable lead that was never relinquished. Bella, we could tell, lost interest about halfway through when the letters she drew were leaving her with little in the way of options. And when Bella gets bored, she can be borderline evil. She darn near talked herself into more trouble, but we let it slide. And yes, I won again!

Near 8pm there was a huge gathering of kids in our backyard. All the island kids were home from their weekend trip to Cleveland for a sand volleyball tournament as well as Lane, AJ, and Jack done fishing for the day. Some other neighborhoodies out there too. Mindy and I walked out when we noticed that Lane and friends appeared to have taken Josie’s phone. They were just playing but we insisted they give it back. They did. I asked the boys where they stash the flat bottom boat they use. It’s nearby in the woods.

Inside I fooled around with the TV trying to figure out why and how our TV volume recently stopped working. We can still listen through the stereo but the TV’s audio is gone. I fooled around with the TV’s extensive menu looking for a misconfig but came up empty. I then rebooted the Time Warner Cisco box, which is a huge disappointment – always something amiss with it. In the end, no joy. I plan to experiment by bypassing the Cable box entirely, perhaps using my camera and a HDMI feed to see if it’s the TV or the cable box. My money’s on the cable box. 

A little hungry, I popped some popcorn while watching some bad TV. Near 10pm all three of us headed for bed.